Development of a Novel Aerosol Mass Spectrometric Technology for Rapid and Sensitive Biomonitoring of Environmental Toxicants Name, address, and telephone number of the Principal Investigator: Dr. Manjula Canagaratna, Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Rd., Billerica, MA 01821-3976, 1-978-663-9500 ext. 285 Names of other key personnel: Prof. Qi Zhang, Prof. Fumio Matsumura Participating institutions: Aerodyne Research Inc.; University of California, Davis This SBIR project will develop a novel technology for biomonitoring of environmental toxicants that cause adverse health effects in humans. The new technology will couple micro-nebulization with high resolution aerosol mass spectrometry to allow sensitive detection and chemical characterization of specific toxicants as well as toxicant classes in microvolumes of blood or biofluid samples. A droplet-on- demand (DOD) interface will convert microvolumes of liquids into aerosol particles of tightly controlled sizes and quantitatively deliver them into an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) for detection and chemical characterization of toxicants. DOD is a proven means of generating particles and aerosol mass spectrometry has been used for over a decade for sensitive and quantitative analysis of particle phase air pollutants with very fast time resolution (seconds to minutes). The coupling of DOD with AMS will allow characterization of liquid-phase species in real time, either directly in biological samples or after liquid chromatographic (LC) separation. The combined DOD-AMS instrument will be capable of simultaneously detecting and quantifying a wide variety of relevant toxic chemicals including inorganic, metal, and organic species. A prototype DOD interface will be developed and characterized in the laboratory with test aerosols containing known toxicants, and with archived blood samples from epidemiological studies. Data mining techniques will be developed to identify organizing patterns within the mass spectral distributions, understand correlations between detected species and health outcomes, and examine the association of multiple analytes and analyte classes with systemic effects. For the purpose of demonstrating the usefulness of this technology we will conduct an epidemiological pilot study on previously collected serum samples from asthmatic and non-asthmatic groups of children. We will first, simultaneously detect many toxicants or their metabolic products in the blood samples, second, use data mining techniques to characterize the toxicants, third identify the types and/or classes of toxicants in the serum that are most significantly associated with asthma using epidemiological assessment techniques. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project addresses the critical need for new biomonitoring technology for rapid, sensitive, and simultaneous measurements of multiple known and suspected toxicants that can be ultimately linked with systematic effects in epidemiological and exposure studies. The proposed technology will allow sensitive detection and characterization of chemical species in small volumes of blood or other biofluids.